Aunt Aussie

Dear Aunt Aussie,

We are having problems with our adopted 4 year old female red merle Australian Shepherd. She is a puppymill survivor (bred for her puppies for the first 3 years of her life) and was likely caged for most of the time as she has splayed feet, hardly any teeth at the front of her mouth, overweight but losing it now, bunny hops when she runs, eats her own poop if she can, etc. The shelter had a hard time finding someone to adopt her and she was returned twice due to aggresive behavior after only a short time of having her. We adopted her 5 months ago as a companion to our male 3 year old Australian Shepherd/Collie mix. She is trusting of me and my husband and both dogs tolerate each other, however she is extremely aggresive towards any guests that come in the house (from what I read it isounds like terrotorial aggression). She growls and barks as soon as she seems them and has bitten a couple of visitors who required hospital treatment(we did not realise the problem at the time). Now we dont have anyone round to the house.

Bruce and Sheila

We had a trainer come to the house and followed her tips for guests to not look at her, act calmly, speak quietly with no sudden movements, throw treats to her, etc and this worked until the treats stopped and she was back to growling and barking at them again (we had her on a lead). We have tried about 5 times now with the same guests but she isnt getting any better. She is still very uneasy in other peoples company in the house and will have her eye on them the whole time. Our lunchtime dog walker who had been walking her for the last 4 months with no problems, has noticed an increase in her aggresiveness recently. It got to the point where she couldnt even get into the house as she feared she would be bitten. Now we are crating her during the day so the dogwalker can walk the other dog. She goes to daycare twice a week and gets on fine with other dogs and people, though will always make submissive whimpering noises as soon as she sees a dog, but is still keen to meet them.

She is a different dog when she meets people outside of the house on our walks and is happy to be talked to or petted by strangers. When we walk away she gives them a bark as we leave. We would really like to have people round to our house again, but they worry for their safety! Can you give us any advice on how we can socialize our dog after the hard start she had in life where she does not trust humans. I can send you a video if you would like to see. Attached is a picture of her with our other dog.

Many thanks,

Lucy
Chicago

Dear Lucy,

While I agree with you that this appears to be territorial aggression, I disagree that it is that simple of a diagnosis. Your dog is at the most basic level suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (ptsd). A puppy mill is most similar to a concentration camp. 4 years in the life span of a dog who lives 10 – 12 years on average is about 1/3 of her life. 1460 days of neglect and treatment that resembles torture. The only interaction she had with people was to be fed once a day (if she was lucky) and hopefully given fresh water in a civil way and not filled with a hose where she was hosed in the process or clean water just added to her already filthy water dish. Someone there must have been kind to her once for her to be accepting of strangers but the rough treatment was focused around her crate, where she was trapped with no escape. Imagine the only time you are allowed out of a crate is when you’re yanked out to be wormed, vaccinated, doused with a flea dip, then hosed off or stuffed into pen or dog run to be mounted again and again if she was in heat. This is not treatment that she will ever forget. A dogs mind is like a computer folder structure, things can be tucked away in a folder and be replaced by good things but they will NEVER be deleted. Training a dog is like a bank account things like good experiences, treats, play, petting and love are deposits while bad experiences, bad treatment and anything scary is a withdrawal. After 1460 days in a concentration camp her bank has a huge deficit. When people come into your home she frightened and defaults to the mind set she had while crated, automatically she goes in to defensive mode, she is trapped with no escape.

I commend you for seeing a problem and bringing in a professional but I have to wonder why you stopped with your guest after 5 times. If a person is afraid of snakes, walking through the reptile house 5 times is not going to cure that fear. This type of emotional response could take weeks, months or even years to change. It all depends on how deep the fear is.

The process the trainer recommended is absolutely the correct process but it will not work overnight. It is intended to be a gradual change to avoid stress to the dog. Dogs can not learn when they are stressed. It works because it breaks the issues down to the most minute triggers and is based on what the dog can comfortably handle mentally and physically. You first need to determine the trigger – what part of having a guest in the house stresses the dog. Is it a sound from outside that alerts the dog that someone is coming like the closing of a car door? Is it the door bell or the knock on the door? Is it the door the person comes in? Is the dog way past her stress level before the door even opens? The smaller slices you break the process into to determine the trigger the better. You can then address each trigger one at a time. Most triggers can be resolved by desensitization. For example, if the door bell is the trigger that send her right off the deep end then have someone stand outside and ring the bell. Get her to sit, treat treat treat, she must remain calm as the door opens slowly, treat, treat, treat and viola the door opens to no one there except, more treats! We want to retrain her mind to say “YEAH Treats!” when the door bell rings and not go into defensive mode because scary things happen when the door opens.

There are several very good books available on helping dogs with fear issues that define this process in detail. I urge you to read at least one.

Patricia B. McConnell – The Cautious Canine – How to Help Dogs Conquer Their Fears

Ali Brown – Scaredy Dog! Understanding and Rehabilitating Your Reactive Dog

Most of all patience and understanding is what she needs. Be firm but be kind. The first priority is to keep your guests safe so if you need to crate her or use a muzzle when you have guests I would do so until you can work through her issue one trigger at a time.